Friday 21 September 2012 09.21 EDT
First published on Friday 21 September 2012 09.21 EDT

Laura Robson has become the first British woman to make a final of a WTA Tour event in 22 years after she defeated the No3 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania in the semi-finals of the Guangzhou Open.

The former Wimbledon junior champion crowned a brilliant summer by dominating throughout and easing to victory with a 6-4, 6-2 win to become the first British woman in a final since Jo Durie in 1990.

The 18-year-old went three games up after breaking Cirstea early on before taking the first set, with the second a formality despite a late break by her Romanian opponent.

The victory continued the impressive run of form for the new British No1 after she overcame the seventh seed, China's Peng Shuai, in the quarter-finals, following on from her success at the US Open where she made it to the last 16 after wins over Kim Clijsters and Li Na.

The 18-year-old said on wtatennis.com: "I'm feeling good, I played well. Sorana is a really tough player to play because she plays so aggressive and hits so many winners."

Hsieh Su-wei booked her place in the final after the Taiwanese defeated Urszula Radwanska in the other semi-final. The fourth seed dropped the second set but powered back to beat her Polish opponent 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 in a match that lasted one hour and 37 minutes.

Against Robson, Cirstea fought back from 5-1 down in the opening set to 5-4 with some big hitting but Robson was very happy with the way she handled the game of the Romanian.

"I kept trying to take the ball early to take the time away from her and give me more of a chance in the rallies," Robson said.

No British player has won a WTA Tour event since Sara Gomer in Aptos, California, in 1988 and Robson knows she has her work cut out to emulate her countrywoman.

Hsieh, ranked 21 places higher than Robson at world No53, has an unorthodox game and won their only previous meeting in qualifying in Osaka last year.

Robson said: "She plays quite differently from most of the players and I need to be ready for this. I played her once before last year in Japan and I lost and all through the match I could never tell what shot she was going to hit next."

The British left-hander's semi-final victory in China bridged the gap back to Durie, who was beaten by Spain's Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario in a WTA final at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1990.